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FULL Rediscovered Works I Too Sing Part 3 Columbus OH 2023 Dione Parker Bennett, Calvin Griffin, Justin T. Swain
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: Rediscovered Works I Too Sing Part 3
- Composer: Shirley Graham Du Bois
- Libretto: various
- Venue & Opera Company: The Lincoln Theatre, Columbus, Ohio, Opera Project Columbus
- Recorded: January 15, 2023
- Type: Concert Live
- Singers: Dione Parker Bennett, Calvin Griffin, Justin T. Swain
- Conductor:
- Orchestra: Ed Bak, PIANO
- Stage Director:
- Costume Designer:
Information about the Recording
- Published by: Opera Project Columbus
- Format: Streaming
- Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
- Subtitles: nosubs
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
“Rediscovered Works: I, Too, Sing America – Part 3” explores the works of Shirley Graham Du Bois. She was an American writer, playwright, composer and activist for African American causes, among others. She was married to W.E.B. Du Bois. While studying music composition at the Sorbonne in Paris, she was introduced to Africans and Afro-Caribbean people which introduced her to new music and cultures. She later went on to attend Howard University and Oberlin College. In 1932, she composed the opera Tom Tom: An Epic of Music and the Negro which premiered in Cleveland, Ohio; and was only performed once to an audience of over 25,000 people in two evenings. The show featured an all-Black cast and orchestra and had been commissioned by the Stadium Opera Company. Tom Tom communicates a deep commitment to reconciling African music in a contemporary, American context. The work then became lost. In 2001, the papers of Du Bois were acquired by Harvard University, where her husband had been the first Black graduate. The efforts of musicologists, historians, and scholars has reinvigorated interest in this forgotten work.